Sunday, June 17, 2007

My Sympathy to This Poor Fellow

Here's a guy who obviously does not have a working radio-frequency-control device in his home or car, I guess.

The Brew City Brawler.

Should we take up a collection?

BCB attempts to demonstrate that P-Mac is wrong when P-Mac states that the "fairness doctrine" is, in effect, a mandate for radio stations to lose money (or at least, to significantly reduce profits.)

BCB argues that "the public interest" is the most significant operative clause in the FCC license-granting language. (Which language he finds in WTMJ's 10K, to wit:)

...upon a finding that the grant of a license would serve the public interest, convenience and necessity.

...and goes on to rant that "the public interest" is NOT served by TMJ's broadcasting of such vile creatures as Sykes, Wagner, (et al.)

First off, BCB ignores the obvious: there are THREE listed criteria which must be met for a grant of license--the other two, 'convenience' and 'necessity' are in play here. But the REAL problem with Poor Ol' Brawler is that (evidently) his radio-dial control is inoperative.

See, Brawler, there's WFMR and WOKY (two all-music formats which include news and weather, privately-licensed). Then there's WUWM and WHAD, both State-and Federal-financed offerings which happen to broadcast the Lefty opinion and the Lefty News, too!!--mostly disguised as "news."

Brawler, one could just as easily make the case that WUWM and WHAD are not "operating in the public interest" by virtue of their draining of precious tax dollars AND their Lefty mental-masturbatory fetishes, no?

So before you get too serious about forcing unprofitability based on the concept that only YOU can judge "the public interest," think twice.

Your Unintended Consequences may be painful to your State-teat-sucker pals.

You can apply for a working radio in the combox.

3 comments:

Billiam said...

Since the Left can't seem to compete in the open market, they'd rather legislate the success out of Conservative radio. Air America is a failure. Public radio features far more lefty opinion than anything resembling balance. So, rather than continue to try and find someone who can compete, they bring out the bogusly named "Fairness Doctrine". No surprise here. Blame others for your lack of talent.

Anonymous said...

I would be cautious of attributing lack of competition. The television air waves seem to be a case in point.

My greater concern in the whole matter is the lack of local coverage. On this count, TMJ does better than most. In particular, if you compare TMJ to the TV stations, the local coverage on TMJ is far superior. WPR is probably the best station for state coverage hands down. The IDEAS network (part of WPR) will often have UW-Extension folks come in and discuss gardening and agriculture. The commerical appeal is low. Both WTMJ and WISN offer glorified infomericals on Saturday morning for this.

Don't get my started on the Advertorials becoming predominant in TV 'news'.

I'm not sure I would be for bringing back the fairness doctrine, but it would be nice if the public air waves were used predominately for the public benefit again. Hello FM! If people want uninterupted music or talk, let them get Sirius or XM.

Dad29 said...

It can be argued since that profitable radio employs a lot of people, it is a "benefit."

You would like an ideal world...but for intellectual development, we're stuck with books, I fear.